My last Electro-Fi CD (Songs of Vice & Sorrow) was a stunning success: it was nominated for a Juno and a bunch of Maple Blues Awards. My friends threw a great party and raised money so I could go to Halifax for the awards ceremony. And not win any. Suddenly, I became very busy: instead of playing for beer and tips eight times a week, I now play eight hundred times a week, mostly for beer and tips, but I also do a lot of benefits, which don’t include beer and tips. I’ve made dozens of dollars and consumed vast quantities of drosophilae fermented in amber water. (drosophilae are fruit flies, but it sounds more appetizing). So naturally we made another album. It took all year, not because we spent that much time in the studio, but because I was doing eight hundred gigs a week. We recorded 30 songs and crammed eighteen of them on this disc. (I now think the other 12 were better). They’re a mixture of originals, covers, and re-arrangements. I covered Sister Rosetta Tharpe’s “Can’t No Grave” and re-arranged Fats Waller’s “Hopeless Love Affair”, Guitar Slim’s “Done Got Over That” and the Carter Family’s “Will The Circle Be Unbroken”. I stole some of the lyrics for “Maggie Campbell” from Tommy Johnson (I think?), and from Washboard Sam for “Lowlands”, but the chord progression was my idea and I’m very proud of it. I wrote everything else (well, not wrote). Some of Toronto’s finest musicians have been kind enough to help me out, and more importantly, to play for beer and tips with me. That was Buster Keaton on the cover of my last CD, not me after a rough gig, as some people thought. This CD cover features part of my girlfriend Kim’s head and me on the back.

Julian Fauth 2008

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